Cotton-cleaner.



V. H. TALTON.

COTTON CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 24, me.

1,292,918. Patnted Jan. 28, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

V. H. TAITON.

COTTON CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 24. I918.

1,292,918. Patented Jan. 28,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEEI 2. x

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H. TALTON, OF COLUMBUS, GEOR GIA, ASSIGNOR T0 LUMMUS COTTON GIN COMPANY, OF COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, A CORPORATION OF GEORGIA.

COTT GIT-CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Yatent.

Patented J an.28, 1919.

Application filed May 24, 1918. Serial No. 236,347.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VANDER H. TALTON, of Columbus, in the county of lWIuscogee and State of Georgia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cotton-Gleanersand I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention has reference to cotton cleaners employing suction feed. My objects are to provide improved means for insuring a uniform flow of the cotton and avoiding wads or masses of the material likely to choke the machine; to insure effective separation of foreign particles from the cotton to avoid their reaching the saws of the ginning machine, and to so arrange the course of the air current relative to the travel of the material that by the time the air reaches the suction fan all heavy particles will have been eliminated and only light dust will be entrained with the current.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View showlng a cotton cleaner embodying my invention. Fig. 2 shows the manner of mounting the screen drum and the air outlet. Figs. 3, 1 and. 5 are details.

Referring to the drawing the casing 1 is shown formed with a feed opening 2 through which the cotton is fed under suction created by fan or pump 3. Projecting within the casing from the bottom of the opening 2 and in an upwardly inclined position is a screen 4 forming the top wall of a compartment 5. The outlet from this compartment is indicated at 6 and is governed by a gate 7 shown comprising a pair of plates or boards 8, 9, hinged together and the board 9 mounted on trunnions 10 in the frame of the compartment. By means of a lever 12, Fig. 3, the gate may be moved to either the full line or the dotted line position, Fig. 1, or any intermediate position. As shown in Fig. 3 the lever 12 may coact with a ratchet plate 13 to hold the gate in its adjusted posltion.

1 1 is a deflector board adjacent the compartment 5 and s disposed that air leaving the compartment through the outlet 6 will ass upward and rearward along the surace of the deflector. Between the deflector and the compartment 5 is a space 15 leading down to a trash receptacle 16.

Above the upper rear end of the screen 4 is a disintegrating picker roller 17 and at its rear is a second such roller 18, a baffle board 19 being disposed downward from the top of the casing intermediate the rollers and in position to direct the material directly downward over the spikes on the surface of the roller 18 at the side thereof adjacent roller 17 and, in conjunction with the spikes, preventing passage over the top of roller 18. These rollers rotate in the directions indicated by the darts, that is, reversely and the roller 17 rotates much slower than the roller 18. The roller 18 is so disposed relatively to deflector 14 that the material passing down beneath and around the roller takes an upward course as at 20 before continuing through the remainder of the apparatus.

Disposed at the rear of the deflector 14 and mounted in the end walls of the casing is a screen drum 21. At one end or head of this drum is the opening 22 connected to the suction fan or pump 3, Fig. 2. relatively contracted space 23 is provided between the screen drum and the top of the casing. 24: designates a screen curving downward and rearward from the top of the easing back of the screen drum. Intermediate this screen and the rear wall of the casing is a channel 25 for trash and other foreign substances. Baflle boards 26 are shown arranged transversely of this channel.

27 designates a obed screen at the lower end of the screen 24. and 28 is a spiked drum co-acting with this screen surface. Beneath the screen 27 is a hopper 29 to receive the foreign particles passing through the screen and gravitating through channel 25. This hopper feeds to a conveyor 30 which, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 5, may supply the trash to a bucket valve of known form having rotary blades 31 of flexible material to provide pockets by which the trash may be received and dumped without permitting escape of the air.

The cleaned cotton'may pass from the easing to the gin through an outlet 32 which also may be governed by a bucket valve 33 of the usual or any preferred type.

In operation the cotton is drawn in with the air current in the usual manner. A portion of the air "current will be drawn through screen 4 into compartment 5. The

balance of the air and the cotton encounter the slowly rotating picker roller 17 whose spikes hold or retard the cotton so that it will be distributed over the entire surface of the roller. It will be noted that the air current has three ways bywhich it may enter the machine after passing through the inlet 2. One is the screen 4; a second is the space between the roller 17 and the inner end of the screen 4, and the third is the space between roller 17 and the top of the casing. Naturally when any portion of these spaces is blocked or congested with cotton the air seeks the next open space carrying the cotton with it until this space also is blocked.

This operation continues until the cotton is spread out over the length'of the roller. During all of this time the revolving roller makes a continuous uniform bat on the spikes. The cotton is released at the top of the roller and i drawn by the air current passing over the top of the roller against the baflle board 19 which directs the air and cotton downward onto the spikes of roller 18 revolving much more rapidly than roller 17. The battle board co-acts with the spikes of roller 18 so that the only passage for the materials is downwardbetween the rollers. Due to the lower rotation of roller 17 the spikes of roller 18have opportunity to comb out and open the cotton in its downward course so that bolls, stones and other foreign substances may gravitate out of the cotton and fall against the deflector 14 and be guided through passage 15 to receptacle 16.

That part of the air which has been diverted into compartment 5 passes out through opening 6 and, guided by the cleflector 14, passes through the passage 15 and encounters the material in the space 20. This causes the material to make a sudden change of direction at substantially right angles to its line of travel downward between the rollers and this action tends further to release the rocks, nails or'other foreign matter and allow them to fall. Since in the passage of these foreign substances down into receptacle 16 they must encounter the current of air passing out from compartment 5 and moving in the opposite direction, any cotton which this foreign mat ter may be carrying with it will be released and entrained with the air current uniting at the point 20.

The gate 7 is adjusted according to the condition of the cotton. VV'hen it is dry and light the gate may be adjusted to restrict the outlet 6 and in consequence decrease the volume of the air passing through the passage 15. When, however, the cotton is damp and heavy a greater volume of air is desirable and the-gate is opened to enlarge the outlet 6 and obtain'a greater volume of the air through passage 15.

The re-miited air currents and cotton pass through space 23 overthe screen drum 21. This contracted space increases the velocity of the flow and results in drawing out and thinning the stream of cotton which is then centrifuged against the screen 24 in a thin layer so as to insure the effective separation of sand, soil and leaf trash which passes into the channel 25. The cotton gravitates to the bottom of the screen 24 and enters the lobed screen 27, this action being aided by the spiked drum 28 which performs virtually a scrubbing action against the screen to effect a final removal of fine particles of trash before the cotton is fed to the gin through outlet- 32. It will be noted that by the time the cotton is ready to leave the machine, and in fact before it is encountered by the spiked drum 28, it is free of the action of the air as the latter has passed out of the opening 22 in the end of the screen drum 21. better condition for the final scrubbing than it would be if under the action of the suction and the foreign matter, if any, carried to the air pump, having to pass through the screen 21, consists of nothing but light dust. This materially saves the mechanism of the pump or fan.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, disintegrating devices in the path of travel of the cotton, and means for diverting part of the air current in advance of the disintegrating devices and combining it with the traveling cotton subsequently to the action of the disintegrating devices.

2. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, disintegrating devices in the path of travel of the cotton, an air compartment to which part of the air current is diverted in advance of the disintegrating devices, an outlet from said compartment through which the divert-ed portion of the air passes to unite with the main current of air and cotton subsequently to the action of the disintegrating devices, and means for regulating the size of said outlet.

3. In a cotton cleaner feed, a pair of disintegrating rollers in the path of travel of the cotton and adapted to successively act upon the cotton, the supply being over the first disintegrating roller and underneath the second, a deflector beneath the second roller, an air compartment to which part of the air current is diverted in advance of the disintegrating rollers, and an outlet from said compartment adjacent said deflector whereby the diverted portion of the air is united with the flow of cotton after the actionof the second roller.

4. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a pair of disintegrating'rollers, asc're'en in advance of the first roller through which a portion of the-air current passes, and

having a suction In consequence the cotton is in means for deflecting such diverted portion of the air current to the main current of air and cotton after theaction of the second disintegrating roller.

5. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a disintegrating roller, a screen in ad vance of said roller and terminating closely subjacent thereto, a second disintegrating roller, a deflector beneath said second roller, the travel of the material being upward over the first roller and downward between the two and underneath the second roller and along said deflector, and means for variably supplying the air passing through said screen along said deflector to the main current of cotton and air.

6. In 'a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a pair of disintegrating rollers, a deflector beneath said rollers, a trash receptacle beneath said deflector, an air compartment having a screen in advance of the first disintegrating roller, and an adjustable valve controlling the outlet from said compartment adjacent said deflector.

7. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a pair of disintegrating rollers and a baflle board intermediate said rollers, a screen in advance of, and terminating closely subj acent, the first roller, a deflector beneath the second roller, a compartment into which the air current passing through said screen is received, and an outlet from said compartment adjacent said deflector.

8-. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a pair of disintegrating rollers between which the material passes do'wnward, and means for introducing an air current into the flow of material beneath said rollers to change the course of the flow at substantially right angles.

9. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a casing, means therein for effecting an initial disintegration, a curved screen surface against which the material is centrifuged, a screen drum extending through said casing, and an air outlet in the end or head of said drum.

10. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a casing, means therein for effecting an initial disintegration, a screen drum extending through said casing and having an air outlet at its end, a contracted space between said screen drum and the casing through which the material flows to increase its velocity, and a curved screen surface against which the material is centrifuged.

11. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a casing, means therein for effecting an initial disintegration, a curved screen surface against wvhich the material is centrifuged, a subjacent lobed screen, a spiked drum coacting therewith, a screen drum extending through said casing within the area bounded by said screen surfaces, and an air outlet in the end of said screen drum.

12. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed, a casing, means therein for effecting an initial disintegration, a curved screen surface against which the material is centrifuged, a subjacent lobed screen, a spiked drum coacting therewith, a screen drum mounted in said casing above, and removed from, said spiked drum, and an air outlet in the end of said screen drum.

13. In a cotton cleaner having a suction feed and a screen surface against which the material is impelled, a receptacle outside of the screen surface to receive the trash carried b the material, a screen drum inside of sai screen surface, and an air outlet at the end of said drum.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

VANDER. H. TALTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washing-ton, D. 0. 

